Weekend cooking – cold lentil salad

I never ate lentils until I was in college but I’m doing my best to make up for lost time. In France (and I’m guessing elsewhere in Europe) people eat a lot of lentils, both warm and cold. A very typical salad in the summer is a cold lentil salad.

The video shows one recipe but really, you can add or subtract options as you like. Instead of scallions I tend to use shallots and while I’ve never added egg (sounds like a good option) I’ve added feta cheese. If you can’t locate good tomatoes, you might try chopped cherry tomatoes which will give a nice flavor. I also add either a touch of vinegar or lemon juice to the olive oil but add what you like.

Chris in Paris
An American in Paris, France. BA in History & Political Science from Ohio State. Provided consulting services to US software startups, launching new business overseas that have both IPO’d and sold to well-known global software companies. Currently launching a new cloud-based startup. Full bio here.

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Inspired by AB, I was at Stop and Shop today and found the lentils. I almost bought a can but then decided on one of those plastic bags of ’em, figuring that would be more economical. Boy was I right. Now I have about 50 pounds of lentils to figure out what to do with. Don’t worry, I have cookbooks. And the internet.

Tried a version of the salad. Once you get all the other stuff in there it tastes as much like the other stuff as lentils.

Our Meyer lemons are ripe and so delicious…..even the skins, which I dice finely and sprinkle in stir fries and curry dishes.

Zorba

Yes. I would have drained the tomatoes. And fresh lemon juice and good olive oil would have improved this tremendously.
But I do love lentils. I grew up eating them.

Zorba

There are a whole variety of lentils. Brown, black, green (several varieties), yellow, golden, and on and on. Most of which you need to buy in specialty stores, or online.
They’re great, and have different uses.

I wouldn’t put dripping wet tomatoes in a salad. Water is the enemy of salads. If they were that watery I’d drain them on paper towels (under and over) first. A salad without vinegar or lemon juice or something like that? I don’t think so. Of course with all that tomato water, adding something else watery would have it swimming. And she left a lot of chopped egg in the groove on the cutting board. Maybe that’s why that kind of cutting board is I think meant for cutting meat, not vegetables. Well, it’s a UK website (ha ha old school British cooking joke).

I’ve never liked lentils that much, although I make split pea soup in mass quantities and freeze it. But if those damn Europeans like them so much I guess I’ll have to try again. And OK, I’ll buy some damn fresh parsley. There’s two kinds you know.

Just an elbow

You should try black lentils. They retain their shape and chew quite well.

You’re lucky, you’ve got probably got mountains of those little green lentils from Le Puy. Years ago my mom sent me a pound box (er, probably 500 gm actually) of those; they sat in my pantry for ages and then I finally got round to cooking them for a soup. I was pleasantly surprised to find that they retained their “tooth” when cooked instead of turning to mush, like I figured was what all lentils did.

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